A wave of new polyethylene capacity will come on stream in 2017 in China.
According to China-based market intelligence provider Sci99.com, China will produce 14.25 million metric tons of PE in 2016, including about 460,000 metric tons of output from newly launched capacity.
Specifically, the Shenhua Yulin project started production in December 2015 and is estimated to have produced 220,000 metric tons of low density PE in 2016. Shenhua Xinjiang started production in October and is estimated to have produced 40,000 metric tons of LDPE this year. ChinaCoal Mengda launched production in April and is estimated to have produced 150,000 metric tons of linear LDPE in 2016. Zhongtian Hechuang began production in October and is estimated to have produced 50,000 metric tons of LLDPE this year. Each of these four new projects has an annual capacity of 300,000 metric tons.
New projects will continue to add PE capacity in 2017, estimated to be around 1.3 million metric tons — including Jiutai Energy (250,000 metric tons of annual capacity), Zhongtian Hechuang (370,000 metric tons), China National Offshore Oil Corp. Huizhou Phase 2 (700,000 metric tons), and Shenhua Ningxia (430,000 metric tons).
Most of the new capacity comes from coal-to-chemical projects.